Proxy apparatuses have been used conventionally to connect wireless communication networks to the Internet in order to enable information terminals such as cellular phones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) or PCs (Personal Computers) to wirelessly access server apparatuses such as Web servers on the Internet. A proxy apparatus relays traffic between information terminals and a server apparatus. The proxy apparatus receives a request message including a request to the server apparatus from an information terminal, sends it to the server apparatus, receives a response message including the result of processing of the request from the server apparatus and sends it to the information terminal. When relaying the traffic, the proxy apparatus also functions as a service gateway that provides services such as content filtering and conversion. Such apparatus is shown in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2000-357176.
While an information terminal is being carried by a user, wireless communication between the information terminal and Base stations (cell sites) can be temporarily broken because the user moves into an area that is in a dead zone or passes through a weak coverage area. In order to facilitate efficient communication between information terminals and a proxy apparatus under such unstable communication conditions, a method is disclosed in which a response message sent from a server apparatus in response to a request from an information terminal is temporarily stored on a proxy apparatus and the response message stored is returned to the information terminal in response to a second request from an information terminal. Such systems are shown in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Applications No. 11-120108 and No. 2002-197005.
In internet access services to information terminals, the information terminals can send access requests to any server apparatuses. Some of such server apparatuses may provide degraded services due to slow response or suspension of services. If a proxy apparatus sends a request message to such a server apparatus for a request from an information terminal, the proxy apparatus will be kept waiting for a response message from the server apparatus for a long time or will have to cause the timeout to stop waiting for the response message. Consequently, the connection resources of the proxy apparatus are occupied for a long time, during which proper processing of access to server apparatuses is disturbed.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus, an information system, a proxy processing method, and a program and a recording medium that can solve the problem. The object is achieved by the combination of features set forth in the independent Claims. The dependent Claims define further advantageous specific embodiments.